PSX5Central
Non Gaming Discussions => Off-Topic => Topic started by: Ryu on October 16, 2003, 03:51:32 PM
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http://www.apple.com/itunes/
I own an iPod and know at least one more of you do and I\'ve been waiting for this utility to come out for quite some time. Suffice it to say, it is now my only media player I support topping Winamp, Windows Media Player, and several other utilities. It\'s functioning and GUI is unmatched in my opinion and I advise anyone with WinXP or Win2K to check it out. It also contains Apple\'s own music store [.99 per song, 10 per album, etc] and works beautifully. Give it a try and let me know what you all think.
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How is the downloading speed?
I might actually utilize it if I had a CD burner, but alas I dont.
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Well, it definitely doesn\'t have every single piece of music out there, but its search functionality is quite good and they add songs daily.
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How is the selection?
Is it really just poppy, rap, R&b junk?
Do they have all the oldies? (Iron Maiden, Def Leppard, The Eagles, Steve miller?, they are impossible to find on Kazaa, to my knowledge)
Are the songs censored in any way?
Music videos on their?
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As long as Kazaa is still around....
But if someone gives me an Ipod I wouldn\'t mind either. :D
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As long as Kazaa is still around....
Here in the states, I\'m a bit weary of Kazaa for some obvious legal reasons. However, that hasn\'t stopped me from seeking other alternatives such as Bittorrent and the like.
Is it really just poppy, rap, R&b junk?
Do they have all the oldies? (Iron Maiden, Def Leppard, The Eagles, Steve miller?, they are impossible to find on Kazaa, to my knowledge)
I\'ll do some searches for you if you like, but it doesn\'t hurt to just download it. It is free afterall until you go to buy a song.
Are the songs censored in any way?
If a song is censoredin any way, it will have a little tag next to it that says "Clean" in order for people to search for multiple versions.
Music videos on their?
None that I know of. It\'s currently for music distribution only, not for videos.
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Just a question about Kazaa... they are cracking down on the sharers aren\'t they as apposed to the downloaders?
What quality are iTunes songs at? 192?
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They are not MP3 files but are rather ACC files encoded at 128kbps, however, the quality of the ACC files at 128 is considerably improved over the 128kbps MP3 files. I would liken it more to a 192kbps or a VBR MP3 file.
Yes, the RIAA are cracking down on sharers on Kazaa here in the states, but the theory is, you get the distributors then there will be no one left to distribute the files. I\'d prefer not to take the chance regardless of who they are targeting and just as I stated, there are many alternative ways to get what you need in this world.
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Well I\'ve been playing around with the windows version today, I like it but it feels too much like a port, like quicktime it feels un optimized whereas on the Mac it feels like it belongs (naturally)
I don\'t like the titlebar, and I don\'t like the widgets at all, would\'ve been better to keep the Mac look instead of just slapping some Windows like elements on there.
But the rest is good.
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So, can Nero 5 convert the ACC file type?
How does file size compare with similar quality mp3?
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File size is roughly the same. Nero can convert the files so they can be burned onto CD. AFAIK, you can burn them onto CD and rip the cd into mp3 files if you so desire, but I\'m sure there\'s some application out there that can convert AAC to MP3 directly. I just have no need to look for it since my iPod recognizes both formats.
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Can this new windows application, when used only as a player (not to purchase and download songs from Apple) actually play mp3s you already have, or does it need to convert all mp3s to aac first?
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It can play the Mp3\'s, it was an Mp3 player before all the AAC iTMS stuff.
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It plays all of your songs without any changes. It can even organize all the music for you appropriately and organize each song into its own sub categories such as genre and whatnot. Here\'s a screenshot of that particular function in action with my existing MP3 library on my harddrive.
(https://psx5central.com/community/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Faltimus-labs.com%2Fhawk%2Fit1s.jpg&hash=aed9c4e4bf782554ad4dc5255f62af34c81cc9ee)
Click Here for Larger version. (http://altimus-labs.com/hawk/it1l.jpg)
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/me will try it. :)
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Can\'t say I\'m wild about the Windows design from that picture. I will however download it and run it via Virtual PC / Win 2K, just for a hands on impression.
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Well, you and n0-0ne actually have macs and are able to use either version. I\'m just happy to get a version at all, even if there\'s only a couple of aesthetic differences that I\'ll honestly never miss. :)
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heh heh heh, I see you were feeling mac\'ish too from that screenshot Ryu, I dug up the Panther theme after installing iTunes.
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I\'ve been using that theme for a month or so now [perhaps more] and it\'s a great theme. Heck, you can tell I love a lot of things mac by just taking a look at the toolbar off to the right. All of those icons were specifically picked out for different programs and there are a LOT Of talented icon creators out there. I just wish they did more for game related icons as those are fairly scarce. I\'m surprised I was able to even find an icon for C&C Generals.
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Are you running XP?
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Yes I am.
Here\'s another screenshot of the program in its minimal form:
(https://psx5central.com/community/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Faltimus-labs.com%2Fhawk%2Fit2s.jpg&hash=0e610d7e2b0352fdefb99e1782e0c68c53183962)
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Do you know where I could get that desktop? It fits in with my theme, although not Xp :laughing:
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Ryu doesn\'t that icon dock annoy you? When you move your mouse to the right to a window\'s scrollbar doesn\'t the dock unwantedly pop up?
Other than that I love the minimalist look, I prefer it too!
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(https://psx5central.com/community/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Faltimus-labs.com%2Fhawk%2Fmouse.jpg&hash=c68dd48f7ebcea310c56af6a422b0afce934e6f6)
Why would I need to move over to the scroll bar? ;)
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So far diggin this, still sorting my music. Might aswell join Ryu\'s club and post a screenie.
(https://psx5central.com/community/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fdemon.vortex.is%2Fmyndir%2Fdt2%2Fitunes2.jpg&hash=1de2863fbdff38545a2aa9b10a0c160c2adbca84)
Clicky for the big one (http://demon.vortex.is/myndir/dt2/itunes.jpg)
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Nice n0-0ne.
Also, I forgot to mention this for everyone else, but iTunes comes with a little feature that manages the volume of all of your music so it plays at the same volume -- every track. I know winamp has a plugin for it, but iTunes does it without activating the plugin and saves the information for each track so it plays at the same level every time without altering the file. Very sweet feature.
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heh i been messing wit it
and its good - i like the visulation a lot better then most others - keeps it random but no boring
also i like the radio stations preloaded - they suit me fine really
been enjoying this though for quite the while - mess around with em on the g5 all the time
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I\'ve been playing with this app for the last hour. It\'s pretty good, but then it seems almost anything is better than WinAmp. They have thought of many little details that should be obvious in WinAmp, but aren\'t.
At first I was concerned that some of the file info for mp3s I encoded earlier was not editable. Then I realized the files were marked read only for some reason. I don\'t know how that happened.
One thing I\'m not sure about is whether editing the file info or adding album cover pictures to the files degrades the audio quality in any way. I\'m not assuming it does, but I just don\'t know. If the app has to open the file, add a picture to it, and save it again, does it also edit the mp3 encoding while doing that? I need to do more testing. I\'m curious about whether the "file info" I add in this itunes app will be visible as ID3 tags when I play the file in another mp3 player, such as a car headunit.
EDIT: It does save the file info as an ID3v2 tag that is readable by Winamp. Also much easier to edit than it is in Winamp. Now all we need are some skins.... :)
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There won\'t be any skins, ever.